Fifteenth Newsletter
Events of 2012
The eventful year of 2012 started off with the students of the Balassi Institute visiting the House in the second week of January. Claudia Budau, Katalina Bogoeva, Ekaterina Emyrova, Tomasz Kantorowski, Gertrud Korpič, Gaia Napoli, Maja Ristic, and Karolina Wilamowska were working on the translations necessary for their Master’s Degree. Still in January we had guests from Saint Petersburg, (Ekaterina Monogarova, Szvetlana Szjomina, Maria Koklova, Victoria Popiney, lead by Oxana Yakimenko) for a Russian translators’ seminar. They were working on an essay about Hungarian literature (A Magyar irodalom kistükre). University students from Croatia lead by Franciska Ćurković-Major followed them. Lunja Grgic, Lilla Trubics, Elvira Angyal, Diana Cvetko, Mirta Maltar and Ivana Cveti worked on translating Bánk Bán. – March is the time for the post-graduate translators’ seminar for the students of the Balassi Institute. (Poszt-Müf-3). Between the 31st of March and the 7 th of April the participants (Maja Urban, Ivana Ristov, Silvia Petzoldt, Reet Klettenberg, Maria Elena Szilágyi Chebi, Kati Fekete, Elizaveta Sochivko, Cora-Lisa Sütő, lead by Mónika Dánél, Péter Rácz) worked on the play Romlás by Attila Bartis. The group presented the work to the students of the Pannon University Veszprém, on the last day they talked about their work with the author. – In the intervals between the seminars, and sometimes overlapping, professional translators spend time in the House, the institution is always full, there is a real professional workshop atmosphere to be felt. Between the 8 th and 16th of April we welcomed the participants of the Estonian Translator’s seminar: Aune Esinurm, Marie Saarkoppel, Siiri Kolka, Reet Klettenberg, Krisztina Tóth. Between the 3rd and the 6 th of May we hosted a Slovak Translator’s seminar, led by Renáta Deák. The participants: the Slovak writer W. Balla, Ladislav Vízkeleti, Petra Számelová, Gabriela Magová, Eva Andrejčáková, Vlado Janček, Jitka Rožňová, Judit Görözdi, Gertrúd Korpič, Renata Deáková. Special guest: Viktor Horváth, the writer whose works were translated. – Jordi Gimeno Benito organized and led a seminar for Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese translators and university students, their large group occupied the house on the 10 th of May. The weather was nice enough, so they could use the terrace of the small bungalow (this turned to be a very pleasant place, much loved by all our guests, as it is quite suitable for individual and cooperative work as well as community events.) The participants: Manuel Pérez, Oriol Prat, Xenia Diakonova, José Miguel Burgos, Tibor Berta, Ildikó Posztós, Fanni Fodor, Tamás Csarnai, Barbara Szöllősi, Kata Kosiczky, Bernadett Hajdú, Zsuzsanna Csikós, Károly Morvai were working on translating poetry by László Nagy, György Petri, István Bella. – In the spring the new well drilled on the site of the old dried up one started producing water, this means the garden can be irrigated. (We are grateful for the help provided by Probio Rt.) – On the 16th of June we had our traditional Garden Party, opened by dr. István Bóka the Major of Balatonfüred. We launched the 11 th issue of the Füredi Fordítói Füzetek 11. Parts of Aliz Mosonyi’s Magyarmesék were translated to 19 languages. The exhibition showing theatre costume designs of Katalin Sárváry was opened by Márta Kovalovszky. This was followed by a fashion performance introducing students of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art studying textile and fashion design (Réka Magyar, Mária Schuller, Réka Sümegi, Apolka Temesi, Borbála Vértesi). The opera singers András Hábetler and XY gave a splendid performance, the goulash was cooked by Péter Bozsik and Márta Józsa. – The Council of Balatonfüred, the City Library and the Translator’s House Foundation celebrated the 100th anniversary of Gábor Lipták’s birthday on the 8 th of July. Ákos Topolánszky gave a speech at the grave; Mrs. Károlyné Pálffy spoke at the memorial plaque, which was followed by another speech by Zsuzsa Bocsor Mrs. Szamosfalvi in the House. The writer was remembered by: Zoltán Sumonyi Pap, Zsuzsa Radnóti, Ádám Topolánszky, Katalin Gopcsa, György Kellei, Antal Gaál, Sándor Rosta, János Czingráber. The event served as a launch for the bibliography prepared by Tamás Tóth-Bencze. Between the 18 th and 24 th of June Simona Kolmanová, from Prague university hosted a Czech translators’ seminar for the first time, the participants: Jiří Zeman, Eszter Honti, Gertrud Korpič; they were translating fragments from the novel Buda by Géza Ottlik. The translator Adan Kovacsics led the Spanish translators’ seminar between the 25 th of June and the 1st of July. The participants: Mari Szijj, José Miguel González Trevejo, Zita Máté, Márta Patak, Éva Cserháti, Eszter Orbán, Veronika Major were translating fragments from works by Pál Gyulai, Frigyes Karinthy and Lajos Kassák. Márta Patak wrote a long article about the seminar for the weekly Élet és Irodalom, which was published in the August 17 issue. – In the autumn (between the 3rd and 7 th of September) we hosted our first ever Hungarian-Japanese translators’ seminar. Konda Sayaka, Uchikawa Kazumi, Eguchi Kiyoko, and their tutor the translator and university professor, Waseda Mika translated works by Péter Nádas, Áron Tamási and Sándor Márai. This was followed by another first, a Romanian seminar. The translator George Volceanov gathered the participants (Andrei Dosa, Alina Rusin, Salat Levente, Gabriela Constantin), who translated poems by Frigyes Karinthy, Zsuzsa Takács, Péter Rácz and Otto Tolnai, accompanied by a writer guest: Lucia Verona. The prize ceremony of the Quasimodo poetry contest was traditionally hosted in our garden, on the 8 th of September, with readings and book launches. The Polish translator Tereza Worowska arrived with a special request, along with the members of her translators’ seminar (Krzysztof Wołosiuk, Elżbieta Właźniak, Maciej Sagata, Beata Dombi, Karolina Wilamowska, Agata Wojtkowiak) they wanted to organize a special literature class for the local secondary school. Our guest met the students of Szilvia Berkes Mrs. Somogyi, they talked about Hungarian literature and the difficulties of translating it. The local TV channel, FüredTV recorded the event. Finnish translators’ seminar: October 1-8: The seminar was lead by Tuomo Lahdelma and Johanna Raimi (particiapnts: Antti Laatikainen, Maria Sarhemaa, Panu Mäkinen, Kenneth Partti, Janne Saastamoinen, Teemu Tuomisalo). Special lectures by: Tamás Gajdó and Lajos Mann. – The work of the house was disrupted by the delay of the promised 2012 annual founding from the ministry. It was already December when we could finally get promises from Zoltán Balog the minister in charge (EMMI) concerning a solution for this problem. Our foundation is grateful for all the help.
Between the 8th and 11th of November, we hosted a seminar from translators into Catalan. The participants Jordi Gimeno, Carles Rodero, Bakucz Dóra, Nemes Krisztina, Carles Bartual, and students from ELTE translated works by Mihály Babits, Lajos Parti Nagy, Ervin Lázár, Miklós Vajda. – The winner of the annual translators’ contest organized by the National Library of Foreign Literature Éva Albert was also awarded week’s stay in the House on the 26th of September.
Each autumn we organize an Open Gate Day, where the public can visit the House, our library, to experience first hand the way our guests are working. This year the Open Gate Day was held on October 7th, Péter Rácz spoke to the visitors about the House. On the 17th of October 17 students participating in the translators’ seminar of the Pannon University visited the House, they learned about our work, the House, our library and talked a great deal with the translators in residence. After weeks of work we created separate catalogs of fiction works and reference works of our library, these can be accessed through our homepage (https://forditohaz.hu/?page=MenuItem7&Sub=83), this simplifies online searches.
Sadly two of our beloved guests died this year, we cherish the memory of the Serbian translator Sava Babić and the Estonian translator Edvin Hiedel.
In 2012 Kinga Szokács continued to prepare extracts from our literary journals throughout the year to aid our translators; these can be found in the house as well as online.
Some of our guests visited the beach of the UNI Hotel, which is free of charge for our guests; we thank them once again for these opportunities.
Our caretaker, Zsuzsa Bocsor Mrs. Szamosfalvi once again did a splendid job all through the year, the guests were delighted.
Transaltors recewing awards or prizes: Buda György was awarded the state translation prize of Austria (Staatspreis für literarische Übersetzung 2012). The Laure Bataillon- prize given to the best French transaltion of the year was awarded to Péter Esterházy and the translator Ágnes Járfás (Semmi művészet).
Press: Magyar Narancs, Magyar Nemzet, kulturpart.hu, balatonfured.hu, Kulturális veszteségeink 2012, Veszprém Megyei Napló, litera.hu, hungarian literature online, prae.hu, MTI, Lánchíd Rádió, Tilos Rádió, Klub Rádió, Élet és Irodalom, Katolikus Rádió, Revista de Catalunya
After the closing of our newsletter we received the news that the Hungarian Translator’s House Foundation was awarded the 2013 Janus Pannonius Award of the Hungarian PEN Club.
We are thankful for the help of the following persons and institutions:
Andrea Andócs, Zoltán Bakos and Ms. Bakos, Péter Balaskó, Erzsébet Ticz Ms. Bertók, László BITÓ, Katalin Bogoeva, dr. István BÓKA, Attila Boros, Géza Boros, György Buda, Katalin Budai, Olivia CARINO, Kata Csorba, Móna Dánél, György Dragomán, Katalin Duna, the transaltors of the Füredi Fordítói Füzetek, Dániel Fürst, Hanga Publishers, Katalin Hanusovszky, Tamás Horváth (Gótika-Vemévszer), Írók Boltja (The Writer’s Bookshop), Járfás Ágnes, Jékey András, the artists who have lent their works for our permanent exhibition, Katalin Kerekes, Kinga Klaudy, Maria Koklova. Márta Kovalovszky, István Ladányi, Mari Alföldy, Tibor Martinovics, dr. Bernadett Mátis, Mikos Rachel, Bernadett Nagy, Nonprofit Információs és Oktató Központ, Márta Patak, Viktoria Popinei, Probio Rt.: László Somogyi, Tibor Pádár, Judit Rácz, Júlia Rácz, Rebeka Rácz, Hajnalka Sárovits Ms. Sárközi, Éva Szabó, Lajos Szabó, Károly Szamosfalvi, Vjacseszlav Szereda, István Széles and Ildikó Firczi, Zoltán Szlabely, Kinga Szokács, Ákos Topolánszky, UNI Hotel: Sándor Grosz; Árpád Vickó, Katalin Vida, Ágota Virág Bognár, Karol Wlachovský, Tereza Worowska.
We are also grateful for the help of the persons and institutions supporting us concerning the issue of the annual funding of the House: Katalin Hanusovszky, Zsuzsanna Vályi-Nagy, Hanspeter Thommen, Ákos Topolánszky, Péter Urfi, Gergely PRÖHLE, Judit Rácz, Géza Szőcs, Péter Szauer, Tibor Martinovics, Szabolcs Wekerle, László Végh, László Győri, Zoltán Kovács, Csaba Károlyi, Endre Bojtár B., Tibor Weiner-Sennyei, András Kalmár, György Kálmán C., Árpád Györffy, Olivia CARINO, László BITÓ, dr. István BÓKA, Vjacseszlav Szereda, Mari Alföldy, Tamás Balogh, Siiri Kolka, Reet Klettenberg, Gyula Dávid, Mónika Mesterházi, Zsuzsa Hetényi, Nikolaj Bojkov, Oxana Jakimenko, Ágnes Járfás, Peter Bergsma, Gabriela Stöckli, Renate Birkenhauer, Jürgen J. Becker, Jörn Cambreleng, Mariarosaria Sciglitano, Rachel Mikos, Ádám Gaborják, Endre Balogh, Katalin Budai, Levente Pál Dániel, Márta Pávai Patak, Péter Ádám, Kamilla Vámos, Árpád Vickó, Ildikó Lőrinszky, Jitka Rožňova, Kjoseva Svetla, Neli Dimova, Cvetana Ganeva, Martin Hrisztov, Sztefka Hruszanova, Ekaterina Joszifova, Szvetla Kjoszeva, Julia Krumova, Jonka Najdenova, Ivanka Pavlova, Zsuzsa Radnóti, Thierry Loisel, Marton Adrienn, Tuomo Lahdelma, Tereza Worowska, Renáta Deák, Bernard Adams, Jože Hradil, Judit Bihari, Böbe Straub, Marci Nagy, Anita Lencsés, György Buda, Gyula Kodolányi, Martin de Haan, dr. Holger Fock, Andy Jelčić, Béla Szabó-Ábrányi, Endre Papp and many others; Attila József Circle (JAK) , Hungarian Translators Asociation (MEGY), Conseil Européen des Associations de Traducteurs Littéraires (CEATL), Réseau Européen des Centres Internationaux de Traducteurs Littéraires (RECIT), Übersetzergemeinschaft, Austria; HVG.
– We are grateful to all those who have offered 1% of their income tax to the Hungarian Translators House Foundation.
Our thanks for donating books to the following: Ildikó Józan, Krisztina Tóth, Sevgi Yagci, Tähti Pullinen, Jože Hradil, Heike Flemming, László Kornitzer, Karol Wlachowsky, Renáta Deák, Jitka Rožňová, Gabriela Magová, Jiři Zeman, Tereza Worowska, Anamaria Pop, Árpád Vickó, Ágnes Járfás, Adan Kovacsics, Martin Hrisztov, Mari Alföldy, Vjacseszlav Szereda, Indu Mazaldan, Reet Klettenberg, Kjoszeva Szvetla.